Recent activities in and by the Catholic
Church indicate significant challenges for and struggles within its leadership,
as the Church attempts to define a way forward in the modern world, which is often
at odds with many of the traditional messages of the Church. Sexual and
financial scandals have eroded confidence in the Church and contributed to the
tide of people leaving the faith. These and other issues of concern to the
Church will be discussed here in light of recent events.

The Church knows something needs to be
done. Recent meetings held by the Catholic Church in Europe highlight issues of
high concern to the Church in the region, issues which greatly affect the
influence and the future of the Church: Secularization, Youth and Islam.

Europe is largely secular, and as the
Church seeks to maintain a strong influence on politics and society it knows
that is has to learn to deal with that fact. A meeting was held by the Council of
European Bishops (CCEE) in Bratislava, Slovakia to discuss the issue of
secularization, the separation of Church and State, how these threaten the
church, and how the church should move ahead.

Youth
are of course of immense importance to society, for they will be the future
leaders, voters, consumers, and in the case of the Church, they will either be
followers, or they won’t. The Church knows full well that if the young do not
accept religious teachings then the church will fail. The meeting in Bratislava
highlighted that evangelizing and winning the youth into the religion is both a
high priority and a significant challenge.

At the Slovakia meeting Cardinal Peter Erdo stressed that
“Secularism does not exclude religion”, and expressed concerns regarding the
right to and respect for religious freedom. The Church believes
that secularism produces indifference to the Christian heritage of Europe and
is concerned about religion being displaced from the public sphere to become a
private matter.

Secularism
does promote freedom of religion. However this is a double edged sword for the
Church, for the very freedom of religion that the Church wishes to ensure and
strengthen has given relatively equal standing to all religion, not just
Catholic or even non-Catholic Christian denominations, including the religion
that Christians most fear: Islam.

Islam is of significant concern to the Church as
it is perceived to be gaining ever stronger influence in Europe, even as the
influence of Catholic Church is in apparent
decline. The influence of Islam is indeed
growing: as reported by the Deutsche
Welle, the estimated population of Muslims in Europe in 2011 was 44 million,
and is expected to rise to 58 million by 2030.

So how does the Church intend to tackle
these problems? One task, as indicated above, is fighting for the Church to be
considered important to society, indeed to combat the notion of separation of
Church and State. Another option is reform, to make the Church more attractive
to an ever less conservative and more critical society, especially its youth.

The Church is clearly struggling with its
position in society. While it recognizes its need to adjust to the times if it
is to remain influential in a secular society that treats all religions
equally, it continues to send mixed messages, continues to be the subject of
scandal, and continues to lose followers. And all the while Islam is making
slow but sure progress in a society which, through policies of freedom of
religion, and equality, is thus equally tolerant of all religion.